Saturday, March 29, 2008

OK, that's one talk show host's rant targeting gays and lesbians, but to some people it includes everyone who's been in this country less than 50 years. It was only 100 years ago that the U.S. seemed to have another serious immigration problem which the press labeled "The Yellow Peril!" The Chinese immigrant was reviled on an unprecidented scale: he took jobs that nobody else seemed to want (thousands of Chinese died building the Union Pacific Railroad), but his families grew at a faster rate than most of the country. And of course there was also his strange "sinister" culture and "heathen" religion.

Last year, NYT gave a great comparison of the candidate's views and actions on immigration, which, on the surface sounded pretty much alike.There are some little sound bites, however...

Obama:

Supports a path to legalization for illegal immigrants that includes learning English and paying fines; toughen penalties for hiring illegal immigrants; voted for fence along Mexican border.

Create system to verify employment eligibility. Supports guest worker programs but would like immigrant workers to be less dependent on employers to stay in the country. Supports granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants."[We] have to recognize that we've got 12 million undocumented workers who are already here. Many of them living their lives alongside other Americans. Their kids are going to school. Many of the kids, in fact, were born in this country and are citizens. And so, it's absolutely vital that we bring those families out of the shadows and that we give them the opportunity to travel a pathway to citizenship. It's not automatic citizenship. It's not amnesty. They would have to pay a fine. They would have to not have engaged in any criminal activity. They would have to learn English. They would have to go to the back of the line so that they did not get citizenship before those persons who had come here legally."

Clinton:

Supports a path to legalization for illegal immigrants that includes learning English and paying fines; toughen penalties for hiring illegal immigrants; voted for fence along Mexican border.Make it easier for immigrants to bring families. Supports agricultural jobs program; opposes guest worker program that can lower wages of American workers or exploit immigrants. Create new system to verify employment eligibility. Opposes driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.

"After 9/11, we've got to know who's in this country. And then giving them a chance to pay a fine, pay back taxes, learn English and stand in line to be eligible for a legal status in this country."

McCain:Supports a path to legalization for illegal immigrants that includes learning English and paying fines; voted for fence along Mexican border."We need to have a guest worker program. ... Our proposal is basically you can get a tamper-proof visa after your job has been proven that it cannot be filled by an American citizen. ... What do you do with the 11 million people that are already here? ... Make them earn citizenship because they have broken our laws. My friends, thats not amnesty. Amnesty is forgiveness. We're not forgiving anything."

Since the enormous flap over spiritual mentors, shouldn't we also take a look at what they, the mentors and endorsers think about immigration? Aren't there moral questions to be answered? Immigration reforms will effect not only Catholic Hispanics, but Asians and Arab and Pakistani Muslims as well.

Obama's Jeremiah Wright:

Even though there is little evidence of Wright's thoughts on immigration, my guess is that a look at his past sermons will reveal someone who supports "sanctuary cities" (like San Francisco). Today's black churches are struggling with diversity issues, trying to encompass people who are not necessarily in the black community.

McCain's Rod Parsley:

Rod Parsley is one of a group called the "Patriot Pastors". Firebrand Parsley's sermons are not only anti-gay, they're anti-everything - except prosperity. "Patriot Pastors" and its offshoot "Let Freedom Ring" have spawned another group called (overtly) WeNeedAFence.com. “Patriot Pastors”is considered a “vanguard” of a church-based political “awakening.” Can anyone here say the words white Christiantheocracy?

Hillary Clinton's mentor, "The Fellowship" (aka "The Family" and "The Foundation")

According to Mother Jones, Clinton has been meeting regularly with The Foundation's women's bible study groups since 1993 and moving up through its ranks. Clinton herself has written in Living History about Doug Coe (the group's leader) and her first encounter with him at The Foundation's estate and how deeply he impressed her. According to one of Mother Jones' sources, a Coe supporter, Clinton "has become a regular visitor to Coe's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, a former convent where Coe provides members of Congress with sex-segregated housing and spiritual guidance." The article goes on to report that "These days, Clinton has graduated from the political wives' group into what may be Coe's most elite cell, the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast." But, despite the words she has written about Coe and the reports of her deepening involvement with the Fellowship, Clinton has refused requests by the press for interviews about Coe and her membership in The Fellowship. "But clearly, she is not as scrupulous about her association with religious figures in her life as she claimed when attacking Barack Obama for remaining in Pastor Jeremiah Wright's congregation."

Almost sounds like some kind of "vast Christian-wing conspiracy" to me. And being oddly secretive is not good.

So, which candidate do you think is going to support diversty the most? Ethnic diversity, racial diversity, sexual diversity, religious diversity, culural diversity. They're all in the mix. If you don't approve of just one of them, does that make you a hypocrit?